Conservative Governor Koike Yuriko of Tokyo, Japan, secured a third term in office on Sunday in an election marked by high voter turnout. Her main rival was expected to be the candidate backed by the Japanese Communist Party but instead finished in third place behind a YouTube celebrity politician who moved to Tokyo just one week before campaigning began.
This year’s gubernatorial race may be more remembered for its chaotic campaigning rather than the result of an incumbent victory, which is common in local Japanese politics. The race attracted numerous unusual candidates, ranging from single-issue political activists to bizarre performance artists to a man who proposed using artificial intelligence for political decisions.
The use of billboards became one of several strange disputes during the election, as the government initially prepared only 48 spaces for posters used by 56 candidates. The election commission eventually asked candidates to tape their billboards to the side of the main billboard, expanding the spaces. The spaces soon filled up with unusual promotions that had little to do with traditional politics.
One candidate, Yusuke Kawai, is a perennial political fixture who appears in his political capacity dressed as either the Joker from the Batman comic books or the comic villain The Mask. He displayed posters featuring a nearly nude woman and promoted polygamy as a solution to Japan’s growing birth rate crisis.
Another candidate, Uchino Airi, used her allotted television time to strip on camera and ask viewers to add her on social media. Despite attracting attention, she failed to surpass the zero percent vote threshold.
Voter Mayumi Noda told the Associated Press that these candidates are “distasteful” and make Japan look bad in front of foreign visitors who pass by their billboards.